Welcome to my journey!

Why you need people with technical background to lead technical teams? There are 2 points of view. Those people don’t need technical knowledge, they need to be close to the business It is essential to have technical knowledge to be successful I tend to agree more with the  2 statement. Companies need effective teams now more than ever. Having the ability to understand both the business requirements and limitations and the technical team’s abilities and the technology limitations are essential to thrive. This is something that neither ChatGPT nor other automation can’t do and won’t be able to do soon. Do you agree or disagree?

We try to label ourselves based on the position we take. I lead many Agile initiatives and I am part of many Agile conferences and communities and I see this over and over again. What is in a book is rarely what is happening in a company. You might label yourself as a project manager, but you also do product owner duties and so on. The challenge for many employees is to either educate the management and change the status quo or to be assimilated into the company culture. Chose your fights wisely, because you might win the battle, but lose the war.

Propaganda surrounds us. Politicians, media and so on, try to convince us about something. What I believe is the difference between the propaganda and the reality is the fact that propaganda uses less objective knowledge and more emotions and especially fear. The easiest way to find the propaganda is to monitor the media for a long time, but that is also the hardest part. As established in my post about workout.

It is funny how we all have similar goals, dreams, and struggles. And yet with the many apps and techniques, people still can’t solve this challenge. How to be healthy? Working out and doing physical activities is one part of the solution. But I see yet again many of my friends including me to not be able to solve it. Why is that? Is it because we put our own self-worth and happiness in the background? I think the fundamental problem is we are terrible in predicting what health issues we will have in the long term. And most of us are really short term focused.

Many companies have amazing procedure and messages. One of them is the promise of internal mobility. The key message is “We will keep our talent by giving them opportunities”. The reality is really different.   Many HRs in such companies confess that is hard for someone to find a job using this process. This opens the obvious question: is it really a benefit or another vague promise?

Customer focused is another thing not very much associated with career progress. Think about who is pushing the growth and the expansion of the business you are part of? Those are, of course, the customers. Depending on your position in the company, you might have more customer exposure or not at all. What are the benefits of having a good relationship with people in general? Potential customer might what you to join their team and boost your career. Good relationship with your customer might also show to the senior managers in the company how talented you are. It is one thing if you scream how talented you are, and another if other people recognize you as a talented person. Another good thing is, you practice this valuable skills that are transferrable no matter what your job is.

There are seldom more than 5 or 7 key result areas in people’s job and you need to know your outcome. In every job, there are a lot of things you can do in addition to your tasks. But not all the activities will help you to grow, be noticed and promoted. That is why you must identify the key areas you want to grow and work on per year and have a regular check if you achieved them or not. Some companies also provide weekly discussions with you and your manager about your goals. As stated before, this could only work when you have a good manager. For the majority of times, you will need to do not only the push but also the pull. Define those 5 or 7 key results for this year and see for yourself if you will achieve more and go further in your career this year compare to a previous on.

Another tip from Brian Tracy is to dress for success. This seems to be outdated advice, especially in the era where billionaires wear T-shirts. But in fact, it is an important thing to consider. We all have a bias and associated higher status to people who wear shirts. Why is that? Most of the time we don’t wear shirts, you need to have a “special” occasion to choose this kind of clothes. Therefore, people who wear suits and shirts really step out of the crowd. This doesn’t mean you need to be dressed so nicely if your job is to be a cashier. But try to look as professional as possible and demonstrate good manners. If you do so, you will step out of the crowed and be someone people will remember.  

Invest in your technical and non-technical skills. There are professionals who don’t know how to behave and ruin their career opportunities and there are people who have a big ego with nothing to back it up. Go to courses, use YouTube, Pluralsight and other platforms and gain additional skills. I had enjoyed my time being part of Hackathons and startup events. The community who supports them and visits them is amazing. I had already achieved for this year an AWS Solution Architect Associate certification, which is something I want to use in my current and future career. Think about one action you will take this year to grow as a professional.

Another tip for becoming successful is to choose your boss carefully. Your boss is someone who could push your career or prevent you from being successful. It happens often, and there is an old saying about it. People leave managers and not companies. I know people who are stuck in the same position because their manager refuses to promote them. I know as well many managers who state that the career progression is solely in the hands of their subordinates. This theory seems amazing, meaning if their team is not promoted is their own fault. In reality, it is rather more common for the progress to be stopped by a manager who can’t find another person to take the spot of a star performer. I know a guy who had interviewed for a position in a Fortune 100 company and the manager used the phrase “Smelly developers”. How would you feel if you are a developer in the team of that manager? I hope the message is clear! Next time when you interview a company, ensure that your manager is good as wel...